Posted on 03/10/2005 2:40:02 PM PST by ambrose
DELL fires 30 Muslims over workplace prayer
Muslim civil rights group calls for rehiring, offers mediation
by OfficialWire NewsDesk
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (OfficialWire) -- 03/10/05 -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on Dell Computers to rehire 30 Muslims workers allegedly fired from a plant in Tennessee for seeking to perform religiously-mandated prayers in the workplace. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also offered to help the company and its employees reach a mutually-agreeable solution to the dispute.
CAIR said the workers were fired from a Dell facility in Nashville, Tenn., after they sought to perform the Islamic "Maghrib" prayer each day after sunset. (While the window of opportunity to perform the other four daily Islamic prayers, the sunset prayer is tied to a particular time of day and therefore requires greater flexibility and creativity on the part of employers and workers. Muslims pray each day after the break of dawn, at midday, in the afternoon, at sunset, and in the evening.)
"Given sufficient goodwill on the part of all those involved, both the employees' legal right to reasonable religious accommodation and the employer's right to maintain smooth operations in the workplace can be maintained," said CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar.
In a letter sent today to Dell President and CEO Kevin B. Rollins, Iftikhar asked that the Muslim workers be rehired pending resolution of the issues involved. He said CAIR staffers who have experience dealing with workplace religious accommodation are available to act as mediators between the Muslim workers and Dell.
CAIR publishes a booklet, called "An Employer's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices," designed to prevent just such incidents. The booklet is available by emailing pubs@cair-net.org. (Include name, address and phone number when requesting the booklet.) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires an employer to accommodate religious practices unless it causes an "undue hardship."
The Washington-based group has 31 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Posted 3/10/2005 2:48 PM
And all the oil-exploration rights are belong to us!
If my Dell was made in China and shipped to me within three days my hat is off to them.
So did my second son. For Christmas. He gave some line of BS about how it would help with his college work but we both know it was to play games online.
"If my Dell was made in China and shipped to me within three days my hat is off to them."
LOL - Yeah, they leave the important work, like mounting a hard drive ( made in Singapore ) and packing it in the cardboard box to the good old American workers.
Thanks for the update FD. I think the Captain needs to get back to the States as soon as possible!
I worked for Dell that this location. Muslims there get all the time they need to go pray. This must had been either a new policy change or a single manager out of dozens there that wouldn't let his people go pray.
Most of the employees there were temp contractors that worked there less than a year. Any more than that and Spherion and Dell would have to hire them permanently and/or give them benefits (that sucked horribly) which they don't want to do.
And as far as the IT jobs there going to foreigners, there are no IT jobs there. It is a manufacturing plant that runs nearly 24 hours a day with 12+ hour shifts and basic hourly pay. Only after 50+ hours do you really see any real money. But your body is so tired from being worked constantly doing the same hand movements all day long that you don't have any energy or time to spend your money. I still, 5 years later, have wrist problems from assembling the components into the systems at a rate of about 45/hr. That is the chip/RAM/mobo, all drives, cards, plugs, and screws inserted in 90 seconds or less by yourself and sent down a line to be tested.
As for no IT jobs there. They could train monkeys to do any job in that place and probably would if PETA wouldn't get on them for it. Like being a dishwasher, most of the citizens that worked there either didn't like the hard work and quit, or had no education at all and knew that was going to be the best paying job they'll ever have so they stayed there.
I'll never buy a Dell computer for purely personal reasons.
I couldn't stand the idiocy that was there. It was classic Dilbert in an assembly line setting.
There was commotion about it at first, but after the (PC) town council approved it everything quieted down.
This was Hamtramck, MI, BTW, which was traditionally an almost entirely Polish community but which has been transformed into a multi-cultural polyglot in the last decade or two.
The issue did get on the ballot after the council action, but it was upheld 1462-1200. Sounds like the Poles are making the best of it, I see there is a Polka Band there called the Polish Muslims. ;o)
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